Newsflash December 2002

NOTICE: 2003 Membership and Committee Nomination Forms are included at the bottom of this page

Dear all

Fresh from a State election, we now know our representation for the next four years. Congratulations to Bronwyn Pike who is our member for the Legislative Assembly and the new Minister of Health, and also to Gavin Jennings, our member in the Legislative Council and new Minister for Aged Care, Aboriginal Affairs and Deputy Leader in Legislative Council. Glenyys Romanes, MLC has been promoted to the Deputy-President’s role in the Legislative Council. We look forward to working with our local members. Indeed, very immediately in the resolution of the C20 Amendment: Bronwyn and Glenyys have been working very hard to progress a State Government decision on the amendment, and were able to achieve Government commitment to most MCC recommendations prior to the election. Readers will know that C20 will regulate building height limits for new developments in large areas of Carlton. We are now eagerly awaiting the full adoption of the MCC recommendations made in June this year. Nearly there! We will also be looking for some progress on the recommendations from the Northern Central City Corridor Study. Other Carlton-related election promises were for funding for the Royal Women’s Hospital to relocate to Parkville, a new Police Station (could include a renovation of the Drummond Street station) and development of the Rathdowne Street housing estate and the Queen Elizabeth site. We will be meeting representatives from the DHS on planning for the Queen Elizabeth site.

“The City of Melbourne’s response to the State Govt Water Restrictions is to comply with the restrictions while achieving a balance between saving and conserving water; and maintaining the health and long-term viability of the horticultural assets.

The ongoing amenity of our parks will be preserved wherever possible. Areas have been identified where a reduction in irrigation may put valuable horticultural assets at risk. We will irrigate these assets close to normal levels within the restriction guidelines. In other areas irrigation will be reduced or ceased to conserve water, eg. grassed or light use areas, drought-tolerant trees. We will monitor the health of the trees and supply additional water by other means when necessary. The dry conditions also present the ideal opportunity to preserve assets, eg. cleaning out lakes and ponds.

A number of factors make it difficult to irrigate adequately under the restrictions:

Residents do provide an important information source regarding the health of our horticultural assets and our irrigation operating systems. Your assistance with general concerns can be reported through the City of Melbourne Hotline on 9658 9658. However, if you observe a faulty irrigation system or a tree requiring immediate attention, you may phone either Ian Shears on 9658 8516 (trees) or Jack Macak on 9658 8442 (irrigation).

The Water Restrictions and Drought Management Fact Sheet is available on our website: www.melbourne.vic.gov.au. Further information including the Save Water Now brochure can be obtained from the Melbourne Town Hall front desk or via the Hotline: 9658 9658.

For your garden: Garden Advisory Service 1902 242 581 ($3.45 per min. incl. GST)”

More Great News: Yesterday we were informed that Heritage Victoria has registered La Mama Theatre (building and land north to Faraday Street). This is exciting news for Carlton. We thank Allan Willingham and Winsome McCaughey for contributing their expertise in arguing the case for registration. Our recent party at La Mama was again a great night, thanks to La Mama for making the theatre available to the community, Fabio Angele from Brunettis for donating food for the Party, and Cr Kate Redwood for proposing the toast for the year. Plus Don Chambers and many helpers for organizing the Party. Take note: CRA members are not very good at responding to invitations: we had to dash out to buy some more food at King and Godreys to feed the multitudes. But no worries: the more the merrier. We have not set next year’s Party date: we have not managed so far to determine a date that does not clash with a Council function. There must be a message there! This morning we had an 8am meeting on finalizing C20 with Councillors Ng and Redwood and staff, all of whom had endured a 5 hours Planning Committee meeting the previous evening. They are working hard on our behalf!

2003 Membership & Committee At our Committee meeting we discussed the yearly membership renewal process and elections for the 2003 Committee. I am pleased to report that most members of the current Committee are willing to re-nominate for next year's Committee, although Lyn Behenna will be retiring as Vice-President. Lyn has been an office-bearer for several years, primarily as Secretary, and keeper of excellent Minutes of meetings. We thank Lyn for her great contribution. A nomination form is attached to this Newsletter, so do consider nominating. The strength of the Association to represent your views is dependent on our membership being large and representative of residents in all parts of Carlton, and on the activity level and advice of Committee members. We encourage you to rejoin as a member, and to interest other Carlton residents to join also. If there is some way you would like to actively help the Association (as a Committee member or co-opted for some role, or in some other way e.g., social, supper at General Meetings, environment), we would like to hear from you. Nomination forms for the Committee and also membership forms for 2003 are attached to this Newsletter. Nominations are due back by Tuesday 16th January, 2003. CRA membership runs from January to December, so membership renewals should be returned by the end of January 2003.

Finally, we wish you all the best for the coming holiday season. Don and I will be spending some time on the NSW coast with our family, and look forward to seeing the surf, bush etc. sans the fires that appear to be raging just now. But we have contingencies for keeping watch over planning applications…